A lot rides on agriculture in the economies of the Caribbean. It has traditionally been the backbone for development. While economic development has seen efforts and resources diverted to other sectors, agricultural enterprises continue to be a pivotal element of the progression of manufacturing, culinary and tourism sectors amongst others. At the heart of this extraordinary contribution are small entrepreneurs. They exist as farmers, marketers, researchers and manufacturers, and they are the cadre of small businesses which support employment and value-creation in the agriculture sector.

They are also the focus of this publication which represents one of the outputs of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture’s (IICA’s) project on “Enhancing the Value-Added Processing of Roots and Tubers in the Caribbean through the Transfer of Improved Technologies”. This project was intended to contribute to the further development of value-added processing of roots and tubers in an effort to boost food security within selected countries. This intent was born of a recognition of the fact that for the processors operating in the Caribbean Region, there is a major challenge of knowledge of and access to processing technologies, equipment, best practices in production and processing (Good Manufacturing and Agricultural Practices), and packaging and labeling which will contribute to the sustained growth and development of the industry. Additionally, information on suitable varieties for processing is lacking in many of the Caribbean territories; information that is critical to determining the best end-use of the particular root and tuber crop.

With this in mind, the IICA and its partners are collaborating in areas which can directly improve the performance, competitiveness and sustainability of the agriculture sector, through the adaptation and transfer of technologies, information and scientific knowledge, among the institutions of the Caribbean and Latin American Regions. Root and tuber crops were high on the priority list of commodities which presented sufficient scope and opportunity for this kind of investment. The functional aspect of root and tuber crops is their high nutritive and starch content1 . These characteristics lend themselves to a range of food processing functions, yielding derivatives with a wide range of applications. Some of the main arguments for this are discussed here with the aim of creating a premise for investment and market development for root and tuber products.